This Is Why America Keeps Getting More Conservative

[FarCenter]

Poorer, less educated, more religious... and more conservative.

Even with the president’s approval rating showing signs of life and the Republicans busily bashing themselves over the head — “one is a practicing polygamist and he’s not even the Mormon,” retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently quipped about her party’s two frontrunners — America continues to track right, according to polling data released by the Gallup Organization last week.

Americans at this political moment are significantly more likely to identify as conservative than as liberal: conservatives outnumber liberals by nearly two to one. Forty percent identify as conservative, 36 percent as moderate, and 21 percent liberal.

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-america-keeps-getting-more-conservative-2012-2

[CurtEastPoint]

1. My gut feeling is that this is not accurate... simply asking people to self-identify with a label

will yield wacky results. Specific questions on attitudes? Were they asked?

[FarCenter]

7. It looks like this Gallup poll data was based on self-identification

Here is the Gallup data http://www.gallup.com/poll/125066/State-States.aspx

It also included "leans Republican" and "leans Democrat". It appears that there is fairly good agreement between "leans Republican" and "conservative". However, "leans Democrat" is generally much higher than "liberal" numbers, so "leans Democrat" must include part of the population that identify themselves as "moderate".

"liberal" only breaks 30% in DC and Massachusetts, and is a majority nowhere.

"conservative" exceeds 40% in a great many states, and is a majority in four.

Here is also a link to the Atlantic article, which the Business Insider article repeats, with graphs showing how conservative identification varies with income, education and religion.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2012/02/why-america-keeps-getting-more-conservative/1162/

[unblock]

2. “one is a practicing polygamist and he’s not even the Mormon,”

[Avalux]

3. Well, less educated and more religious is definitely a trend.....

and that's exactly what Republicans want. Destroy our public schools; keep our kids from learning science and critical thinking skills......home school everyone to believe creationism is science and we have a nation of stupid idiots who can't think for themselves and believe whatever garbage they're fed.

Yep.

[HockeyMom]

8. Religous "training" can backfire on them

I spent 12 years in Catholic school. We were taught religion, not just Roman Catholic religion, but we had to know about all other religions. I think they call that Compartive Religions. Supposedly, they felt that a Catholic couldn't debate a Non-Catholic/Non-Christian, or promote the faith, if they didn't know what other religions were all about.

Ok, so with all this knowledge would presumably make a person a stronger Catholic? As you said, critical thinking skills! Be careful what you wish for, you just might get what you didn't ask for. If you could critically debate OTHER RELIGIONS, or NONE, you could also critically debate, and QUESTION, you own Catholic faith.

I hear many religious Catholic people say that the Church has failed to "teach" their flock the religion and that is why so many Catholic ignore the church's teachings on birth control, gay marriage, divorce, etc. Oh, I don't think that is so. Certainly not for adults who went to their schools. They KNOW very well, but because they have been taught to THINK, they are IGNORING what the bishops are saying. It doesn't make any SENSE to them.

[hughee99]

12. Exactly, I'll bet if you look at the poorest performing school systems in any state

I'm sure you'll find them in a repuke stronghold.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. I'm personally conservative too.

I try to conserve resources, prudently steward the property I own, and set a temperate role model for my kids.

But I don't hate. I don't hate the government (especially since I have the wits to recognize that the government is me), I don't hate the <insert minority group here> and I don't hate thinking.

"Conservative" is being turned into a bad word by conservatives.

[handmade34]

5. taken from the original article

in The Atlantic

"...Liberalism, which is stronger in richer, better-educated, more-diverse, and, especially, more prosperous places, is shrinking across the board and has fallen behind conservatism even in its biggest strongholds. This obviously poses big challenges for liberals, the Obama administration, and the Democratic Party moving forward.

But the much bigger, long-term danger is economic rather than political. This ideological state of affairs advantages the policy preferences of poorer, less innovative states over wealthier, more innovative, and productive ones. American politics is increasingly disconnected from its economic engine. And this deepening political divide has become perhaps the biggest bottleneck on the road to long-run prosperity..."



http://books.google.com/books?id=YerA7ZQLYr0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=REd+State+Blue+State+Rich+State+Poor+State&source=bl&ots=XpZ387kSoj&sig=liZJ6b_AjOfuy0UhY43q7P7Ipyc&hl=en&ei=pyrATIb3I8b_lgfS6oj_CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=REd%20State%20Blue%20State%20Rich%20State%20Poor%20State&f=false

[Swede Atlanta]

6. I don't buy this.......

During the 2008 cycle, numerous polls and studies revealed that the population overall was becoming more liberal, especially younger voters that don't align with the social conservative position on things like gay marriage, etc.

[Avalux]

9. But someone else may have

Sometimes I think so-called "studies" and "statistics" are purely made up propoganda, bought and paid for by the GOP.

[madrchsod]

10. notice the conservative states get more tax payer dollars than the liberal states....

[LiberalFighter]

11. Different definitions of conservative.

[librechik]

13. If they had asked about specific issues instead of a brand, "conservative v liberal"

I'm sure the results would be different. This country has been brainwashed into identifying as conservative when they really don't know what conservatism is, they've just been indoctrinated to believe it is better.